Ralph Cameron Ormiston, DA, industrial designer; born December 22, 1921, died October 7, 2000
ANYONE who is a fan of Coronation Street will see one of Ralph's designs in regular use - the large ''Cordon Bleu'' cooker in the cafe, designed when he was chief designer at Carron Company. He was justly proud of his cooker, the forerunner of the range-type cookers so evident in electric showrooms these days.
Ralph was born in Bridge of Allan, the middle one of five children. His father worked for the British Linen Bank, but he was a church organist and conductor of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in his spare time, and Ralph grew up with a love of music which gave him great joy throughout his life.
At school, Alloa Academy and then Stirling High School, he excelled in sport especially rugby, and he was sports champion of Stirling High in 1938.
Ralph then went to the Glasgow School of Art, but his studies there were interrupted by the War. He volunteered for the RAF, becoming LAC after training, and spending the war years as a fitter armourer in bomber squadrons in various parts of southern England, Austria, Italy, and Egypt. It was an indication of his commitment to the service that he was nominated the smartest man at the passing out parade after basic training.
These years gave him the chance to mature, and he returned to Glasgow School of Art and a change of direction to industrial design. He graduated in 1949, and was always very proud of the fact that his Architectural Sketchbook was awarded an amazing and well-merited 95%.
Ralph worked in High Wycombe and London in various jobs - industrial design was a relatively unknown profession in the 1950s. He returned to Scotland when his father fell ill, and was employed in Grange-Camelon Iron Company in Falkirk, part of the Federated Foundries Group. There he designed stoves and built-in fires, including the well-known ''Sofono'' models. His work was featured in Scottish Field at this time. Then the company branched out into electrical appliances, and among his designs at this time was the round electric convector which has recently found new popularity as a design icon of the fifties and sixties. It has been featured in several home design magazines in the past year or two, and this gave him a lot of pleasure.
Then the company was taken over and, rather than uproot his young family, he opted to remain in Scotland. He worked for a while with Sir Basil Spence, Glover and Ferguson in Edinburgh, designing the lights and bar area for the original Glasgow Airport building, but when an opportunity arose in the industrial field, he went back to Falkirk to work for Carron Company. There he designed stainless-steel sinks, and the Cordon Bleu cooker.
Later he had a spell of self-employment, designing pumps for Weir Pumps, and also galley ranges for a Glasgow firm.
A home-loving family man, he had three children and four grandchildren, and a succession of much-loved dogs and cats! Ralph was an ardent Scot; he loved Scottish culture and history, and was at his happiest in convivial company with a pint of real ale in his hand.
His home was testimony to his designing innovation, with every room sporting hand-made prototypes, and his piece de resistance, a spiral staircase to developed attic bedrooms, designed and made by hand - power tools were scorned!
Ralph was a man before his time in many ways, highly gifted, and like so many other people of talent, greatly undervalued.
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